all in the life's work of owning the best city bike for oneself i suppose. i have slowly made her very customizable for me, and i wouldn't have it any other way.

joanie has these pesky old school cottered cranks. ever since i got her i've been dreading the day i need to make an upgrade. well, here it is. must face the music head on. i'm ready for the challenge...it just means a new PROJECT! :)

it was sort of scary to ride down division street feeling like i was pushing pedals into a bottom bracket made of mud. luckily enough for me, i was close enough to work, so i got off and walked the rest of the way. i was able to drop off my bike at a bike shop nearby, so i can decide how best to get her home.

in the meantime it seems like i'll be getting more use out of the she-devil. hope she's ready! heh. of course she is. i just don't like locking her up anywhere in the city, so that fact makes her a less desirable all-around city bike. but at least this way i can take the butterlap route home.

anyone have any cottered crank replacement ideas, or done the upgrade themselves?

sigh. yeah, i'm going to call the awesome vintage bikes specialty shop today and see what they have to say. they were closed yesterday. i've also heard of these awesome sounding things...threadless bottom brackets. that seems to be a nice alternative solution, thanks to velo orange.

and yes, the BIBLE (aka sheldon) will be consulted when i get my awesome boyfriend the bike mechanic (kinda like hubby the bike man) and myself and a computer and sheldon all in one room to make a determination on where to go from here. phew.

i'll be probably detailing the upgrade, so stay tuned and thanks for commenting!

Good luck getting everything sorted out as smoothly as possible. My OH rode with a knackered bottom bracket for about 4 months - it was twisting his knee everytime he peddled anywhere on it. Enjoy your other ride in the meantime :-)

hehe, thanks! the rain and my knee have kept me away from doing the longer rides i would want to do, but they are both going away (the rain and the minor pain my knee is in), so need to get some "training" rides in stat!

i'm definitely leaning to upgrading to more modern (and LIGHTER) crankset...two pounds i hear. not that joanie is a weight weenie or anything, but any thing i can do to make her easier to go up hills is a win in my book.

just last night i took her up to coit tower (in the rain....) for a bike party test ride. that was not easy with her current set up.

Velo-Orange has a replacement bottom bracket that can be used to upgrade to the newer style square taper crank set, if you choose to got that route. It is probably the least expensive way to go if you can't find parts to fit the Raleigh specific stuff.

thanks aaron. i'm definitely into seeing what velo orange has to offer as far as BBs go. i'm also thinking about using one of their cranksets since their granny gear would be GREAT for SF, but i'm also thinking if i go that route, i'll need to change the derailleur as well. any thoughts on that?

Sheldon Brown's site has some useful information on the project. I did this same operation a few years ago on an old Raleigh mixte. I ended up patching together pieces: the cups from the original bottom bracket, a square taper spindle from a Shimano bottom bracket from ebay, and ball bearings from a local hardware store (the Shimano balls were too big). The cranks were salvaged from another city bike I used to own. Inexpensive, but time consuming and frustrating because of all the trial and error.

ooh, thanks for the tips. i feel we might have to do a bit about this piecemeal type upgrade as well.

update is they took apart the BB, updated the ball bearings, but i also feel it's just a matter of time before something happens where i'll really have to upgrade everything. she already feels different from riding, but she's not easier to ride as you would think it would be after some new grease and ball bearings. boo.

i'll def keep you all posted. i've done some reading on sheldon, and seems there are a few avenues i can try to take. just need to decide on one! :) that is always hard for me. too many choices leads to too much time thinking about all the possibilites.....

You might want to touch base with "Biking in Heels". She has dealt with crank and BB issues on her Raleigh bike for well over a year. A new BB was decided on and the process described in the posts below. Good luck.